Gono's Half Year Monetary Policy Statement, 30 July 2008

Money
- your problems are solved!

It's hearty congratulations today to the Governor of the Zimbabwe
Central Bank, Gideon Gono. With one stroke, he has tackled our
hyper-inflation problem. He has lopped ten zeros off the end of all our
currency notes.

Thus, thanks to Gono's incisiveness, a ten billion
Zimbabwean dollar note is now suddenly worth...one Zimbabwean dollar. It
will, of course, buy you only what ten billion Zimbabwean dollars would buy
you yesterday - or to be more accurate, it will buy you
less.

Because, as someone here said, lopping zeros off the currency is
like applying lipstick to a frog. It might change its appearance. But the
frog is still a frog. Hyper-inflation is still with us, and the zeros will
soon be racking up again on our new dollar notes, and buying us ever less in
the stores that have nothing to sell.

Those in possession of
old-style notes with countless zeros on them need not worry. These will not
cease to be legal tender until December 31. Until them you can still use
them to buy all those essential items our shops haven't seen for
months.

Gono knows the pointlessness of fiddling with figures like this,
so why did he do it? The answer is - modern technology. Apparently our major
bankers and shop owners have told him their computer software could no
longer cope with such elongated totals.

When the news came through,
some thought it was a sign of a break-through in the talks between Zanu-PF
and the MDC in Pretoria. Sadly, instead of a break-through, the talks
produced a break-down, mainly due to Mugabe's ludicrous offer to Morgan
Tsvangirai of the post of third vice-president.

Quite what the duties of
the third vice-president involve no-one is clear. Making the coffee? Surely
not. Telling the fourth vice-president to make the coffee? Possibly. What is
clear is, Tsvangirai turned the offer down flat.

But, perhaps
surprisingly, the talks aren't finished. South Africa's President Thabo
Mbeki, the mediator between the two sides, says they will reconvene on
Sunday.

Will they soon produce a fair and just solution to our country's
problems. I'm willing to bet five Zimbabwean dollars they won't. New dollars
or old ones.

Removing zeroes not the solution: analysts

HARARE - New monetary measures
including a new currency announced by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono on Wednesday will do little to revive the country's
comatose economy, analysts told ZimOnline.

Gono, tasked by President
Robert Mugabe to lead efforts to turn around Zimbabwe's economy, announced
that he would on August 1 introduce new currency as well slash 10 zeroes
from all monetary values.

While acknowledging that the removal of zeros
from all monetary values would be of great convenience to the public,
economists said Gono's new measure fell far shot of the full package of
wide-sweeping political and economic reforms required to resuscitate an
economy that has been in freefall since 2000.

Harare based economist
Luxon Zembe said introducing new currency in an environment of
hyperinflation such as that obtaining in Zimbabwe was "not
desirable".

He said: "You cannot change the currency where government
expenditure continues to go up, capacity utilization is still at its lowest,
where we have little or no foreign direct investment, no balance of payment
support and a stable exchange rate and without the normalization of
international relations.

"These issues are still not solved and can
only be solved by addressing the political situation first."

The new
currency will be easily by inflation which at more than two million percent
is the highest in the world, according to Zembe.

The slashing of zeroes
would only serve to help financial systems that were being clogged by the
zeros, he added.

Another economist, John Robertson, said the only viable
solution to Zimbabwe's currency and wider economic problems was to implement
measures to boost production.

"The solution lies in addressing issues
of scarcity of commodities, of foreign exchange," said
Robertson.

Zimbabwe is in the grip of an economic crisis that Mugabe
blames on sanctions imposed by Western countries in a bid to end his iron
grip on power.

However, critics blame the economic meltdown on
repression and wrong polices by Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since the
country's 1980n independence from Britain. - ZimOnline.

Desperate
Mugabe pleads with businesses

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has pleaded with the business
community to avoid imposing unilateral price increases in the face of an
unprecedented economic meltdown he says has been engineered to make him
unpopular.

The Zimbabwean leader says his government may, however, be
forced to invoke emergency measures if business attempts to derail his
government's newly-introduced currency reforms by hiking prices
unjustifiably.

During his recent election campaigns, Mugabe repeatedly
attacked the business community for allegedly colluding with the opposition
by hiking prices to make him unpopular.

While his speech yesterday
was sprinkled with mild threats to the businesspeople, a desperate Mugabe
largely sought to appeal to their emotions.

"We live for each other,
work for each other," Mugabe said Wednesday during the unveiling of the
country's currency reforms by central bank governor, Gideon
Gono.

Gono on Wednesday announced the reintroduction of a formal
currency, four years after being forced to replace its circulation by
massive cash shortages fuelled by a galloping inflation.

"And as we
live and work for each other, do we realize that we, and all, have to a very
great extent similar interest, similar demands, the same physical makeup,
biological and mental," said Mugabe.

"The content and quality may differ
but we have flesh. I have flesh so have you. You have a brain; so have I. If
really we are the same, do we also have those emotions for each other which
are very important - the love for each other, sorrow, pity, sympathy for
each other?"

Mugabe, who has previously accused business of hiking the
prices of goods to foment rebellion against his rule, said his government
may be forced to introduce sterner measures to compel business to
comply.

"We become extortionists, we become too self-centred," he said.
"We want to be rich alone, even at the expense of the nation. It is
precisely where we have had difficulties with some entrepreneurs."

He
said his government had the option to invoke emergency measures.

"If you
drive us more, we will impose emergency measures and we do want to place our
country in a situation of emergency," he said. "Emergency rules can be tough
rules you know. We want to leave you with that freedom, flexibility to do
things, to make decisions.

"In a state of emergency, decisions are made
and they are contained already in the laws or rules that are
given.

Zimbabwe has been reeling under recurrent price increases that
have fuelled its inflation to an unprecedented 2,2 million
percent.

Previous attempts by government to compel businesses to stick to
stipulated prices have back fired as goods completely disappeared from
supermarket shelves only to resurface on the parallel market at even higher
prices.

Mugabe, 84, maintains his government is being unfairly targeted
by the united States and Great Britain.

"The country, let us
remember, is under illegal and vindictive sanctions," he said. "Sanctions
which are not being really personally targeted as they pretended they
were.

He claimed Britain was seeking his ouster, and maintained he was
given the mandate to rule by the people through elections.

"But why,"
Mugabe said indignantly. "Why should he (Mugabe) leave the seat of power
that his people have given him. What has he done to you, what offence? They
won't say.

"They just say he is a dictator, there is no democracy, no
rule of law, constant violation of human rights. And of course they will get
lackeys and puppets to echo that from within us."

The Zimbabwean
leader, who has since refrained from attacking his political opponents for
fear of jeopardising the ongoing inter-party negotiations, did not elaborate
on the alleged puppets - a term he has routinely used to describe the
opposition.

Mugabe accused western powers of abusing the UN Charter to
further their hegemonic interests against his country.

"Then they
would want to apply Chapter 7 of the Charter of the United Nations which is
meant actually to apply to a country which is a threat to international
peace and security," he said.

He was referring to a recent attempt by the
UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe. The proposition failed
after vetoes by China and Russia

"Are we a threat to international
security?" asked Mugabe. "They twist and manipulate even the
Charter.

"These are the international leaders we have during our
time."

Referring to US President George Bush, British PM Gordon Brown and
his predecessor, Tony Blair, Mugabe added: "Dishonest, hypocritical,
completely horrible leaders in the nature of the Bushs and Browns and
Blairs. Never telling the truth."

Meanwhile, Britain says it may
consider bringing the Zimbabwean issue before the UN Security Council once
more if the inter-party talks between his party and the opposition
fail.

Mugabe is being blamed for bringing down a once prosperous economy
through both corruption by his lieutenants and successive populist policies
that have driven foreign investment outside Zimbabwe 's borders.

Zimbabwe opponent hopes for "honourable exit" for Mugabe

Reuters

Wed
30 Jul 2008, 19:48 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Zimbabwe opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai said on Wednesday he hoped talks aimed at resolving the
country's political crisis would give President Robert Mugabe an "honourable
exit".

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party began power-sharing talks with the
opposition in South Africa last week, but doubts have surfaced over progress
after they were adjourned on Tuesday.

South African President Thabo
Mbeki said on Wednesday the talks would resume on Sunday.

"The
role of Robert Mugabe and the role of Morgan Tsvangirai in the envisaged
co-sharing government will have to be discussed by the negotiating parties.
I am not in any position of defining what his role would be," Tsvangirai
said in an interview with Britain's Channel 4 News.

"What I would hope is
that it will allow him (Mugabe) a process of an honourable exit," he said,
speaking from Johannesburg in what Channel 4 said was his first broadcast
interview since the negotiations began.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai are under
pressure from within Africa and the rest of the world to negotiate a
national unity government to end a crisis that has ruined Zimbabwe's economy
and flooded neighbouring states with millions of refugees.

Tsvangirai
said Mugabe was "just as human as every one of us" and had similar concerns,
"although of course I think he is ignorant, or chooses to be in a denial
stage, as far as the violence is concerned."

Asked if he could work with
Mugabe, Tsvangirai said: "That I cannot say, because that is part of the
negotiation process."

Tsvangirai said there had been obstacles in the
talks but said that was natural in any negotiating process.

"There
have been sticking points. Some issues have been ironed out, some issues are
still outstanding. We hope that as the negotiations proceed they will find a
common compromise," he said.

The settlement under discussion was a
transitional arrangement that would bring the crisis to a soft landing and
allow the parties to deal with issues of rule of law, the constitution,
humanitarian intervention and economic recovery, he said.

This
interim period should last "no more than two years in our perspective," he
said.

A two-week deadline for completing the talks runs out on August 4,
but it could be extended.

It has been unclear what compromise could
be reached at the power-sharing talks.

The opposition Movement for
Democratic Change says only Tsvangirai can lead a new government because he
won a first round presidential vote in March and only pulled out of a June
run-off vote because of violence he says killed 122 of his
supporters.

ZANU-PF has said it will not accept any deal that fails to
recognise Mugabe's re-election.

Fake
war veterans exposed in court

MASVINGO - A court case held in Masvingo has confirmed
beyond any shadow of doubt that some of the so-called war veterans, indeed,
have no record of service in the war to liberate Zimbabwe.

It is
widely suspected that the ranks of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War
Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) are fraught with people who never fought in
the guerrilla war that resulted in independence in 1980.

The war
veterans' association has increasingly become the backbone of support for
President Robert Mugabe in the twilight of his political career. It is led
by chairman, Jabulani Sibanda with Joseph Chinotimba as deputy, both men
allegedly with no track record in the war.

Three men, all registered with
the ZNLWVA, were sentenced Thursday to an effective 10 years in jail each
after they were convicted of stock-theft. The trio drove away 16 head of
cattle from a commercial farm belonging to Andre Eugene Fore, soon after the
June 27 presidential election runoff.

Records before the court revealed
once more that some of the elements committing crimes or harassing fellow
Zimbabweans while posing as former freedom fighters were merely unemployed
people seeking to survive the current economic hardships by exploiting the
status of war veterans for personal benefit.

Taurai Nyome 39, Austin
Shoko 41 and Mathias Ndlovu 45 all of Zvomupungu Village under Chief Neshuro
in the Mwenezi District of Masvingo Province, were each sentenced to a total
of 15 years in jail after they were convicted on 16 counts of stock-theft.
The magistrate suspended five years in each case.

Going by their
current ages, Nyome would have been aged 11, Shoko 13 and Ndlovu 17 when the
liberation war of which they claim to be veterans ended in 1980.

The
court heard that the three were registered members of the ZNLWVA, the main
organisation that represents the interests of the members of ZANLA and ZIPRA
the two guerrilla arms that engaged the rebel regime of last Rhodesian Prime
Minister Ian Smith until the declaration of independence.

The association
was formed in 1991 with controversial Polish-trained doctor Chenjerai
"Hitler" Hunzvi, now late, as chairman. The association had a modicum of
credibility and respectability as it campaigned for the interests and
welfare of genuine former freedom fighters, who had largely been sidelined
and neglected by an increasingly self-centred political
leadership.

The militant ZNLWVA arm-twisted the bankrupt government
of President Robert Mugabe to pay its members compensation and gratuities in
recognition of their contribution to the war of liberation. Observers say
hundreds of undeserving persons benefited from the huge payouts. The huge
sums of funds paid to the former guerrillas, genuine and bogus in 1997,
contributed, in no small measure, to the onset of the economic downturn,
which has now finally brought a once prosperous Zimbabwe down to its knees.
The funds were not budgeted for.

The government also established a
War Victims Compensation Fund for those whose military service with the
guerilla armies had resulted in physical disability. Recipients were paid
according to the level of disability assessed by Dr Hunzvi. By the time the
government suspended payments the fund had been heavily looted. A total of
70 000 applicants, many of them bogus had helped themselves to the
staggering amount of Z$450 million.

Hunzvi assessed commissioner of
police Augustine Chihuri to be 100 percent disabled after diagnosing him for
"dermatitis of both feet". Chihuri was paid a total of Z$138 645 for these
"war wounds".

Both officers
now serve on the all-powerful Joint Operations Command (JOC) which has
effectively usurped executive power from President Mugabe since his defeat
in the March 29 presidential election.

The leader of the JOC is General
Constantine Chiwenga. He was also assessed by Dr Hunzvi and was paid an
undisclosed amount for chest injuries. His injuries were, however, of
post-war vintage, having been self-inflicted when he attempted to commit
suicide after he failed a military examination long after
independence.

The happiest beneficiary from this daylight looting was
President Mugabe's own brother-in-law, Reward Marufu. He was diagnosed for
"ulcers and a scar on the left knee" and received the largest disbursement
of the whole exercise - a staggering Z$822 668. This was equivalent to US$70
000 at the time. When the scandal was exposed he was immediately posted
abroad to Ottawa as a diplomat at the Zimbabwean embassy in Canada. He
seized a commercial farm long distance from there.

Hunzvi diagnosed
himself as being 114 percent disabled. While the ZNLWVA was established to
alleviate the plight of impoverished freedom fighters it has since been
transformed into a vehicle for the corrupt enrichment of some of
them.

Disputes over leadership subsequently ripped the association
apart, attracting new elements, chief among them Joseph Chinotimba, a former
municipal security guard. The bearded Chinotimba, whose participation in the
liberation struggle has been questioned, assumed prominence after he played
a frontline role in the invasion of white commercial farms from
2000.

It was during this period that many young men and women emerged as
claimants to the status of war veterans as they settled on the occupied
farms, while threatening and harassing opposition officials and members, as
well as judges and journalists alike. Many of the insidious acts of the
so-called veterans were perpetrated with the tacit approval of the
government which, at the time, had found itself confronted by a popular and
viable opposition for the first time.

Some of the war veterans were
richly rewarded. For instance, Zanu-PF transformed Chinotimba overnight from
a municipal policeman to a businessman, owning a security company, and
driving the latest Jeep Cherokee.

The developments tarnished the
reputation of ZNLWVA, with genuine war veterans distancing themselves from
the association. It is now led by Jabulani SIbanda, a vocal supporter of
Mugabe, who led marches in his support before the recent elections. Sibanda
has not responded to charges that he is not a genuine war
veteran.

Meanwhile, a large number of genuine war veterans broke away
from the ZNLWVA and established the rival Zimbabwe Liberators' Platform
under the leadership of WiIfred Mhanda. Known as Dzinashe Machingura during
the war, Mhanda was regarded by Mugabe as a dangerous threat to his
position. He was jailed for many years under inhuman conditions at Cabo Del
Gado in northern Mozambique. Among the prisoners with him was Police
Commissioner Chihuri.

Yesterday's court case in Masvingo provided
incontrovertible proof once more that in Zimbabwe not all who call
themselves war veterans fought to liberate the country.

The court
heard that Nyome, Shoko and Ndlovu drove the stolen animals to their village
34 kilometres away and shared them among themselves.

The cattle, which
were then valued at Z$60 trillion, were recovered.

The three were
convicted on their own plea of guilty on each of the 16 counts of
stock-theft. They also pleaded for mercy.

They claimed they had been
misled by politicians to believe that they were free to do anything since
President Mugabe had won the elections.

VP for Tsvangirai a non
starter- Coltart

The MDC Senator for Khumalo,Sen.David Coltart has
described as a non starter,ZANU PF’s reported offer of third Vice president post
to MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai in an SADC/AU initiated all-inclusive
government.

“The general consensus that I’ve gleaned is that he
will be offered a substantive post. A third vice president wouldn’t provide him
with any power and simply is a non-starter.’ he told ABC’s The World Today program last night.

Coltart further said it could be true that ZANU PF
negotiators could have been instructed by Mugabe to negotiate around the Vice
Presidency and nothing more. That stance reported stalled talks on
Monday.

“They may have put that offer even before the talks
started. But I think that Zanu-PF itself would know that that is simply a
non-starter.”

Coltart was the only MDC(Mutambara) candidate who won
a seat in the political volatile Bulawayo Province and is also MDC’s Secretary
for Legal Affairs, he is in Australia this week as a guest of the Centre for Independent
Studies.

Coltart also said the current negotiations are
different from the 1987 talks that led to the swallowing up of the opposition PF
ZAPU.

“We can’t trust Robert Mugabe at all. He has always
had a belief in a de facto one party state. He is at his core a Marxist
Leninist. And so he does not come to these negotiations with clean hands; and he
does not come in good faith.

”But let me stress this: that the fundamental
differences between now and 1987; in 1987 Robert Mugabe was in charge of a
country that had a reasonably strong economy, he had the backing of pretty much
the entire world and so he was in a much stronger negotiating position. Now it’s
completely different. Robert Mugabe is alienated, is isolated, even in the
region, inflation is out of control, there’s a lot of disaffection within the
military and the police and the civil service.

”And to that extent he is the weaker party and he we
will have to reach an agreement soon because if he doesn’t there’s the real
danger that events will spin totally out of control and that he may even lose
power through the military taking things over themselves. ” said
Coltart.

Meanwhile South Africa’s ANC head Jacob Zuma took a
veiled swipe at ZANU PF ’s hard line stance which forced the talks to hit an
impasse on Monday.

“The leadership should realise that negotiations are
a matter of give-and-take and of compromise,” Zuma told reporters from
Maputo.

Mugabe 'totally committed'

Power-sharing talks between Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF and the MDC
were set to resume on Sunday, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday after
meeting Robert Mugabe.

Mbeki is mediating in the talks at a
secret location near Pretoria.

Mbeki flew to Harare for discussions
with Mugabe after the talks adjourned on Tuesday, amid suggestions by the
MDC that they were deadlocked.

"We came just to brief the president
on how far the negotiations have gone," said the South African
president.

"There are, naturally, some matters that require the
negotiators to come back to consult. That's why they are all here in Harare
today," said Mbeki, whose discussions with Mugabe lasted an
hour.

Mbeki said he had already met Mugabe's rival, Morgan
Tsvangirai, in Pretoria on Tuesday after the negotiations had adjourned, and
was to meet the leader of another MDC faction later on
Wednesday.

Earlier, 84-year-old Mugabe
expressed his "total commitment" to the Pretoria negotiations, insisting
that they were "going well".

"We are still negotiating, we want to
succeed," Mugabe told guests at a Central Bank function to announce a new
monetary policy.

"We would like to see the speedy conclusion of the
talks and a successful outcome so that we can focus our attention in the
future around our economy," he said.

Tsvangirai and Mugabe
signed an accord on July 21 to begin talks on sharing power after a
months-long election dispute.

While Tsvangirai believes his victory
in the first round of a presidential election in March should give him the
right to the lion's share of power, sources in his MDC say Mugabe's
negotiators are so far only offering him the chance to become one of several
vice-presidents.

The former trade union leader has twice been
charged with treason and needed hospital treatment for head injuries last
year, when he was assaulted by members of the security forces ahead of an
anti-government rally.

The MDC said in a communique on Wednesday
that two more of its activists were killed last week, allegedly by Zanu-PF
supporters, even after the accord signing in Harare.

"The
deaths show that there is no sincerity on the part of Zanu-PF. The death of
the two brings to 122 the number of MDC activists who have been murdered
since the March 29 harmonised elections," it said.

Mugabe, whose
country has a 2.2-million-percent inflation rate, linked Zimbabwe's economic
future to a successful outcome of the talks.

"We want to see a
turnaround for our economy, we want to see a turnaround on our political
front," he told guests at the function. But he warned that in such
negotiations, "there is no winner or loser. Things are not easy all the
time".

"Our detractors accused us of inflexibility. Then when we
started talking, they proceeded to impose sanctions, which we don't
understand," he said in reference to recent United States and EU
sanctions.

"As Zimbabweans, we should summon our collective will to
unite as we do in business. Only through unity can we defeat imperialism."-
Sapa-AFP

This article was originally published on page 2 of
The Mercury on July 31, 2008

MDC councillors embark on quality service delivery

As the MDC promised to the people of
Zimbabwe during the 29 Marchharmonised elections that once elected
into office its councillors putin place strategies that would bring
quality service to everyZimbabwe, the party would like to inform the
ratepayers that sworn incouncillors have started putting in place
measures that will bringquality service to every
Zimbabwean.

The MDC is a social democratic party with people
driven-centred valuessuch as transparency, equality, fairness and
accountability.

As a result in all cities, towns and rural councils
that ourcouncillors, mayors or chairpersons have been sworn in, the
MDCcouncillors have started implementing their duties
diligently.

The MDC councillors won in 44 local authorities from 89
nationalcontested councils, while Zanu PF won in 30 councils and the
ArthurMutambara led formation in 15 councils.

This makes
the MDC the party with the highest number of representationin council
across the country.

It also has a total of 800 councillors from the
1958 contested councilseats.

During these first 100 days
in office, the MDC and the electorate willmonitor how these
councillors are performing their duties.

The MDC-led councils have
proved that the MDC is the party of choiceand at local level these
councils will stamped out corruption andimprove efficiency and quality
services both in rural and urban areas.

Some of the areas that
councillors have already kick off theprogrammes are Harare, Masvingo,
Bulawayo, Mutare, Bindura and Chegutuwhile full operational MDC-led
councils are expected to begin theirduties as soon as they are sworn
in.

Through the MDC's majority national council representation, the
partyalso has in place a social and economic programme, which
placesimportance on providing people with investment opportunities,
qualityand affordable health care and education among other
issues.

The councillors will also hold regular meetings with the
people tofind out ways on how best to improve the people's
livelihoods.

Court orders SA to pressure Mugabe over land
seizures

BILL CORCORAN in JohannesburgSOUTH AFRICA: A SOUTH African
court has given its government 60 days to bring pressure to bear on
President Robert Mugabe's regime that will result in some form of remedy for
a citizen dispossessed of farms during seizures of white-owned land in
Zimbabwe.

In a landmark decision on Monday for South Africans whose
Zimbabwe farms or businesses have been seized illegally, Judge Bill Prinsloo
in the High Court criticised the government over its failure to help farmer
Crawford von Abo, from the Free State, despite his repeated requests for
diplomatic protection.

"Over all these years the respondents have
done absolutely nothing to assist the applicant, despite diligent and
continued requests for diplomatic protection," said the judge, before
adding: "No explanation whatsoever has been forthcoming for this tardy and
lacklustre behaviour."

Mr von Abo, who is suing his government for
damages of Rand60 million (€5.222 million) over its inertia, lost six of his
Zimbabwe-based farms in 2002, as well as livestock and machinery, when they
were seized by so-called war veterans during the state-backed land
expropriations.

While the court ruled the South African government had a
constitutional obligation to protect Mr von Abo's rights and that its
actions amounted to "an act of bad faith", his application for damages was
postponed pending the outcome of attempts to get his land back or a
satisfactory remedy.

"I regret to say that it is difficult to resist the
conclusion that the respondents were simply stringing the applicant along
and never had any serious intention to afford him proper protection," Judge
Prinsloo said.

"Their feeble efforts, if any, amounted to little more
than quiet acquiescence in the conduct of their Zimbabwean counterparts and
their 'war veteran' thugs."

As a way to remedy the abuse of Mr von
Abo's rights, diplomatic pressure could be brought to bear on the Zimbabwean
government to restore his property or pay him compensation through the yet
to be signed bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement with
Zimbabwe, the judge said.

MDC
says murder of members continuing

HARARE - Politically motivated murders and human rights
abuses have continued in Zimbabwe despite the talks between President Robert
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC.

The MDC on Wednesday accused
President Mugabe's party of killing two of its activists last weekend -
despite claims by Mugabe's government that reports of politically motivated
violence after July 24 - when talks with the MDC commenced - were
false.

Acting MDC spokesman Tapiwa Mashakada, who is also the party's
deputy secretary general, said in a statement Wednesday that in spite of the
on-going SADC-brokered dialogue in South Africa, two MDC activists were last
weekend murdered by Zanu-PF supporters.

Mashakada said the body of
Fungisai Ziome, an MDC activist who was abducted from her home on July 23,
was discovered in a maize field on Saturday morning in Glendale. The area,
which falls under the Mazowe South constituency in Mashonaland Central
province, is a stronghold of support for Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party.

Mashakada said Ziome, of Ward 13, was an active MDC supporter who
was abducted by Zanu-PF supporters who then allegedly mutilated, burnt and
dumped her body.

Ziome's savagely mutilated body was discovered in
the early hours of Saturday by passers-by. Mashakada said a report had been
made about the murder to the police but no arrests have been made.Police
were not immediately available to comment.

Meanwhile, Kingsley Muteta, a
police officer, died at Harare's Avenues Clinic on Saturday after being
beaten, allegedly by a mob of 12 Zanu-PF supporters at his parents'
homestead in Mudzi.

Muteta, who was a serving police officer in Harare,
was attacked by a Zanu-PF mob when he visited his mother after she was
brutally attacked by the Zanu-PF militia at the family's rural home.
Mashakada said Muteta's mother was a well-known MDC activist.

Muteta
was first taken to Kotwa Hospital in Mudzi and later transferred to Harare
where he died on Saturday due to the injuries sustained during the
assault.

"The MDC has asked Zanu-PF to show its commitment to the
dialogue process by stopping violence, disbanding all militia bases and
prosecuting all perpetrators of political violence," Mashakada said. "The
deaths show that there is no sincerity on the part of Zanu-PF."

The
latest murders push the death toll of MDC members killed since the March 29
elections to 122.

The two rival political parties have been locked in
power-sharing talks in Pretoria since last week Thursday. The negotiations
seek to resolve the country's economic and political crises.

The
parties to the talks adjourned on Tuesday to allow negotiators to consult
their principals amid reports of a deadlock over the offer of a deputy
presidential post to MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

The talk's
facilitator, South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, flew to Harare Wednesday
to brief Mugabe on the talks.

Mugabe told reporters after an hour-long
meeting with Mbeki: "We are still negotiating, we want to succeed.
Negotiations are negotiations; they are not a card game. You find room for
compromise, sometimes compromise is difficult and you stand by your
proposals as presented. You debate again and again and reach a compromise. I
understand the talks are going well."

Surviving another day in rural-urban Harare

Humans of the civilized world cannot fathom how on earth an
average citizen survives in Zimbabwe. What with an inflation rate of more
than ten million percent, a completely worthless currency and empty
supermarket shelves, Darwinian adventure, Cesarean courage and Bonapartean
arrogance can be the only vital ingredients in my daily survival
kit.

Wednesday 30 July
2008

From
Rejoice Ngwenya in Harare

My day starts with a fire in the gazebo to warm
a bucket of bathing water. Electricity is usually down and with a water
system that collapsed six months ago, running water is a thing of the
past.

Sweet Revenge

Zimbabwe National Water Authority has a
repertoire of excuses why the precious liquid deserted my home. I have
stopped asking. Water bills do come, but there are no penalties for ignoring
them. In fact, deliberately ignoring water bills has become to me, an act of
satisfying sweet revenge! Electricity does appear once in a while, but the
risk of relying on stove-heated water is much too high, if I have to
guarantee getting to a meeting on time. Forget eggs and a cup of tea. They
are not on my menu if the preceding day I had no access to at least six
United States dollars. My breakfast is therefore limited to a bowl of corn
meal porridge with peanut butter, and boiled sweet potatoes!

Back in
the bathroom, I'll be lucky to find a piece of scented soap tablet.
UniLever, one of the few companies that manufactured soap long closed their
doors. We survive mostly on cross border traders who sell toiletries from
Botswana and Mozambique. If I am lucky to find a piece of soap at the
Greek-run Spar, it will probably take all my day's local currency allocation
of one hundred billion dollars.

Mugabe TV presents
Mugabe

After a few minutes of watching France 24 news beamed via a
free-to-air decoder, I reassure myself that the streets are still safe from
an uprising, then drive around the block to pick a couple of neigbhours.
Nobody watches the government controlled ZTV news nowadays. After firing an
entire staff accused of being opposition party sympathizers in the days
preceding the 29 March Parliamentary Elections, the only television station
is stuck with a Mugabe crony named Happison Muchechetere who has effectively
reduced the broadcaster to a ZANUpf [ruling party] community
station.

I cannot leave my neigbhours, because public transport has
completely collapsed. Mini bus operators change their fares everyday,
claiming to be motivated by a local dollar that is resented and rejected by
petrol suppliers who prefer the greenback. One litre of gasoline sells for
USD1.50, while a single return trip ranges anything from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty billion Zimbabwe dollars. Motor vehicle fares are pegged
against the US dollar, hence most mini bus operators have either folded, or
switched to the more lucrative private hire market.

Cash
rations

My trip to the city is interrupted by at least four police road
blocks. They are not very hostile, since over the long period that these
points have operated I have grown to know some of the officers by name. It
takes about five minutes to persuade them that my boot is empty - no weapons
of human mass destruction like axes, knob carries and catapults. Careless
jokes about AK47s and grenades can land one in prison. These poor chaps are
really hungry. Mini bus operators are not spared either. They have become
somewhat a reliable source of money. Traffic police call them 'ATMs'. My
four passengers will always volunteer to pay me something at the end of the
journey, though not enough even to buy one bottle of coke. This is
philanthropy. Before driving off to the office, I join a bank queue for my
day's 'allocation' of one hundred billion dollars, in case I have to
purchase a few buns for lunch. If I get a late call from my wife to pick a
few vegetables from the supermarket, I would have to use a
locally-denominated Visa Card - a system that has become more reliable than
even a cheque leaf, provided telephony is working that day!

For big
transactions like motor vehicle service, my life is a nightmare. It costs
around forty trillion Zimbabwe dollars for light service. The garage want
their payment in advance, so I generally cannot write a cheque because
Reserve Bank regulations banned figures of more than nine hundred billion on
cheque leafs per day. Governor Gideon Gono concocted a system called RTGS -
an interbank electronic transfer system that has long collapsed due to being
overwhelmed by shear volumes and unprecedented zeroes. More often than not,
it takes almost ten days for the money to show in my garage's account and by
then, the cost of service has changed. This means I now have to 'supplement'
with cash sought from the black market, since the bank can only give me one
hundred billion!

Doubling phone bills before they are
ready

Back at the office I have another heart ache - a paralysed Internet
system. If I am lucky that the office driver found petrol for the generator,
I will have to labour through a dead-slow dial-up system, or a broad band
struggling due to lack of electricity at base stations or poor support
service since most telecoms technicians have escaped to South Africa! Making
calls through cell phones requires extra ordinary patience. The networks can
no longer cope because of congestion.

Telecel, NetOne and ECONET are
the only three players, but government imposes a tariff control on them. As
a result, the companies have not been able to inject sufficient capital for
expansion, while consumers take advantage of low tariffs to literary 'sleep'
on the phones. Of late, Strive Masiyiwa's ECONET have introduced an advanced
payment billing system to cover themselves against inflation. What they do
is to simply double the figure on my current bill! Net One, the government
controlled network is struggling to supply customers with refill cards due
to a lack of foreign currency to run the system. Telecel has not had it easy
either. Its former owner, James Makamba escaped to London when government
accused him of sympathising with opposition MDC in flighting interviews on
his 'private' television station. The company has since been taken over by a
consortium of ZANUpf cronies.

Rural urbanites

My day ends with
another drive back home. I no longer have any social life because not a
single point of 'pleasure' accepts local currency. In short, Zimbabwe's
economy has been truly and effectively dollarised. Gono is still in a state
of denial, but as for me, Mr Average, I will have to live to fight another
day. But before I settle for another dose of France 24, I bundle a few jerry
cans into the wheelbarrow in search of water at the nearest well, a water
well in the centre of a middle-income, urban residence. Truly, Mugabe has
reduced us into a bunch of rural urbanites!

Rejoice Ngwenya is a regular
columnist for African Liberty. He is a Zimbabwean Freemarket Activist and
Political Analyst.

Mahofa, Matuke in Maize Scam

GUTU, July 30 2008 - Two losing ZANU PF
Members of Parliament (MPs), who also own milling companies here, have been
implicated in flour and mealie meal racket.

Former Gutu
South and North MPs, Shuvai Mahofa and Lovemore Matuke, are being accused of
selling mealie meal and flour they acquired from the Grain Marketing Board
(GMB) in foreign currency at the black market rate.

Mahofa, who
was said to have bought 30 000 tonnes of wheat at government-subsidized
rates from the GMB under the auspices of the peoples' shop concept, is
selling a 50kg bag of flour at South African Rand 300. A source said Mahofa
does not want the local currency, citing galloping inflation that has
reduced the Zimbabwean dollar to worthless paper.

"She only
charges in foreign currency, especially the rand," said a source who had
bought a bag of flour from the former Deputy Minister.

A quick
check by Radio VOP revealed that a few bags were in her shop at the growth
point's central business district, while workers said most of the flour is
stashed at her house in one of the low density suburbs.

On the
other hand, Matuke, who got an unspecified tonnage of maize from the
country's grain reservoir, is selling a 50kg bag of mealie meal for R100.
Matuke, who also got a grinding mill through a scheme initiated by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), is also said to be selling the grain direct
to customers, instead of milling it.

"Matuke is selling
both mealie meal and the maize grains in forex. But after he got the maize
from the GMB, he is no longer milling, saying his grinding mill is out of
order," added the source.

The two scarce products, which are
meant for starving villagers, have left the two ex MPs making abnormal
profits, after buying a 50kg of maize at the GMB rate (through the drought
relief programme) for $1,7 billion and flour for $5 billion.

"The Zimbabwe dollar will be redenominated by a factor of
one to ten, which means we are removing ten zeros from our monetary value:
$10 billion today will be reduced to $1, effective from 1 August," said
Gideon Gono in a televised address.

This is the second time in
two years that the Reserve Bank governor has been forced to lop zeros from
the local currency as he fights record inflation, currently estimated at
more than 2,000,000 per cent.

In 2006, he slashed three zeros and sent
bank employees into remote rural areas to mop up old banknotes in the now
infamous Operation Sunrise, which was meant to herald Zimbabwe's economic
recovery.

But the sham re-election last month of Robert Mugabe has sent
the Zimbabwe dollar plummeting again. With the country on a knife-edge this
week as talks between Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition appeared to
falter, the British pound changed hands for a record one trillion Zimbabwe
dollars, nearly ten times the official rate.

A loaf of bread soared
to $300 billion - three times a teacher's monthly salary. Calculators,
computers and bank machines have been unable to cope with the extra
zeros.

Dr Gono, Mr Mugabe's personal banker, announced the introduction
of a $500 note. It will be worth five trillion of the old dollars. The note
will not be enough to buy a tub of ice-cream. A $100 billion note was
brought in last week.

The bank chief said old and new notes would
co-exist until 31 December. He joked that Zimbabwe's domestic workers would
be "seriously empowered" by the reintroduction of old $1 and $5
coins.

The coins were last used around eight years ago before Mr Mugabe's
chaotic programme of white land seizures first sparked mounting inflation.
Wealthy Zimbabweans gave the coins away years ago.

Speaking after the
governor, Mr Mugabe threatened to impose a state of emergency if businesses
kept hiking prices.

In a threat likely to erode what little investor
confidence remains here, he said: "If you drive us more than you have done,
we will impose emergency measures and we don't want to place our country in
a situation of emergency rules."

Businesses have been battered by Mr
Mugabe's price slash last year, which saw thousands of traders arrested.
Police frequently arrest business people found charging in foreign currency,
which is illegal.

This month, the regime announced that it had launched
an audit of Western-owned companies ahead of the implementation of
controversial black empowerment laws. Fear of the authorities has forced
many businesses underground. Private warehouses sell goods such as cooking
oil and margarine in hard currency only to "vetted" customers.

Dr
Gono blames the crisis on "illegal" sanctions imposed by Britain and the
United States. Yesterday he put on a stern face, but his address at times
threatened to degenerate into farce.

Scheduled to begin at 9am, the
proceedings did not kick off until 10:30am, leaving dozens of
businesspeople, politicians and economists gathered at Harare's
International Conference Centre plenty of time to guzzle free bottles of
Mazoe Orange Juice.

After a senior official read a prayer, an embarrassed
Dr Gono was forced to retire from the podium before he started his speech.
He asked for "just five or ten minutes" to finish it, prompting speculation
he had been ordered to make changes.

Transmission was then frequently
interrupted, leaving viewers watching an advert for Japanese car engines,
that was played repeatedly.

Moving tales of vicitms

IOL

July 31 2008 at
08:00AM

By Ufrieda Ho

South Africa is a changed place
for Nomusa Moyo.

It has changed so much since the xenophobic
attacks in May that even though the Zimbabwean student speaks passionately
about the plight of migrants, she turns her head away from the camera, too
scared a photo of her in the newspaper will make her the target of an
attack.

Moyo is an intern at Constitution Hill as part of Wits
University's World of Work programme.

She is also the
co-ordinator of an exhibition at Constitution Hill called Our Lives Now -
Migrant Experiences of SA.

It's a collaborative effort between Con
Hill, The Market Photographic Workshop and the Forced Migration Studies
(FMS) programme at Wits. It follows on from a series of anti-xenophobia
talks and exhibitions at Constitution Hill, and more specifically from Keith
Adams's We Came for Mandela text, which documents the cultural life of the
refugee community in South Africa.

Narratives documented by
FMS accompany the images.

These include stories of the ordinariness
of going for a beer on a Saturday night then watching the night turn into
one of terror, or the comments of a woman, identified only as Mercy, saying:
"It felt like I was stealing from my own house."

She had to
gather her most precious possessions and flee her own home.

The
narratives will be compiled into a FMS document and the photographs are part
of a Market Photographic Workshop project called Back and Forth. This
project was undertaken by their photojournalism and documentary students in
2006.

The Workshop's co-ordinator of public programmes, Lester
Adams, explains that the project, which pre-dates the attacks, was a way to
explore migrants' lives at the edges of society.

It was also
undertaken in collaboration with the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM), an advocacy group for migrants' rights.

Adams says
the project was about raising awareness and in the end about 70 images from
that project were put together for a publication of the same
name.

Moyo offers her own perspective: "People don't think that
migrants have rights and the right to demand decent living conditions as
provided for in the South African constitution; they're more comfortable
with seeing migrants as helpless victims."

She says people
don't bother to understand the resistance or the fear as migrants are
processed by authorities in poorly executed registration
campaigns.

"We need better education, better engagement," she
says.

She admits though that the stereotyping and antagonism goes
both ways.

The exhibition in itself is not about advocacy
necessarily, but it stands as a mirror to what is happening right now in
South Africa; something we should all see, if were brave enough to take a
good look.

* Our Lives Now is on at Constitution Hill until the end
of August. For more information phone 011-381-3100.

This article was originally published on page 26 of The Star on July 31,
2008

The rubbish being fed to Zimbabweans

The Chronicle editorial
yesterday

Opinion & Analysis

When a political volcano
erupts

By Stephen Mpofu

ZIMBABWEANS at all levels of society
should not lower their guard because the enemy siege on our country holds,
and might even be intensified, witness the latest broader, harsher sanctions
slapped on the country by the United States and the European
Union.

That such retrogressive, even ethnocentric action comes after
full-scale, interparty talks got truly under way in South Africa to resolve
the country's intractable economic and political challenges - after
President Mugabe (Zanu-PF), Mr Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) and Professor
Arthur Mutambara (MDC-M) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) paving
the way for dialogue does not demonstrate genuine goodwill for
Zimbabweans.

Any claims that the latest batch of sanctions against
Zimbabwe are intended at prompting the three political parties truly and
earnestly grapple with the problems facing the country cannot be taken, even
at their face value, as genuine.

If a car engine stalls and you
push-start it, you do not continue to push even when the vehicle starts to
run on its own with the engine in full throttle and then rush ahead and
place boulders in its path.

A realistic attitude and supportive action
should have been to scrap the old sanctions and in their place introduce a
package of financial and other, necessary assistance for Zimbabwe - even if
these are kept on hold pending the final outcome of the current talks over
the mediation of South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki.

That way,
Zimbabweans and other progressive people of the world would be convinced
that America and Europe do not necessarily wish to punish this country any
longer but that, by putting something positive in a temporary offing, they
are keen to aid Zimbabweans along the path of progress towards a solution
that is not good only for themselves but for all other people in the global
village who share the same destiny with this nation.

Yet in signing in
his government new and punitive measures in Washington at the weekend,
President George Bush said that his country will help Zimbabwe if a solution
"favourable to the people" comes out of the current negotiations.

But
who should really and honestly decide what is good or bad for Zimbabweans:
Washington DC or Zimbabweans themselves?

The thinly veiled "if" ultimatum
by Mr Bush can only suggest that a solution that he has in mind is probably
one that will further and protect Americans' political and commercial
interests in this country.

In light, therefore, of the war that
continues, supported by Europe and America's illegal sanctions, it is not
only incumbent upon Zimbabweans, but imperative that the masses and their
leaders rally behind the negotiations in South Africa while at the same time
defending the image of the country from negative and destructive
misinformation.

As things stand, dirty propaganda has been flowing to and
fro between Zimbabwe and the Voice of America radio - perhaps with other
foreign media also in the fray - like body wastes circulating between a
toilet and a septic tank.

It is a fact that Americans and other
Westerners know very little beyond their borders about what goes on in
smaller countries where their national interests are limited, so it is
Zimbabweans themselves who churn out some of the propaganda demonising their
own country, either for money or merely to consummate their fixation on the
Government or the ruling party for political or other weird reasons best
known to themselves.

Of late for instance, there was this hullabaloo
about people still "living in mountains" allegedly because of continuing
violence. VOA was accused of peddling that false information because the
violence that followed the presidential elections has virtually ceased and a
United Nations official recently in the country on official business
commented to that effect.

VOA, CNN, BBC or some other foreign radio
stations are not ubiquitous in Zimbabwe but it is Zimbabweans themselves who
mainly supply those electronic media with the unmitigated
untruths.

It must be said, however, that there is no harm in Zimbabweans
disseminating information that is correct and to the public interest if the
idea is for wider public to make informed and intelligent decisions that
help humanity as a whole.

However, as is the case, Zimbabweans are to
a very large extent their own worst enemies by pursuing self-destruct
actions naively or simply foolishly.

And yet when the crunch comes like a
volcano, erupting the lava will not skirt them but will consume everything
in its way.

For Zimbabweans to avoid searching their own souls but
instead continue to place sole responsibility for the anti-Government
propaganda crap on foreign Press maybe unavoidable but it is like kicking a
dog repeatedly in the hope that it will somehow resurrect and learn to bark
up the right tree.

Is it not indisputable that in the minds of many in
developing countries the reputation of the foreign Press is a carcass lying
in wait for time's supreme judgment?